Here is my Telegraph Blogs take on The Speech:
The core Cameron calculation turns on his probably shrewd calculation that the center of gravity of the British people’s position on "Europe" is that they want Some EU, but Not Too Much.
He therefore has promised them a referendum on a New Deal that he fervently hopes to present as getting that balance substantively right, so that he can campaign for a Yes/In vote. (Notice how he sidestepped journalists’ attempts this morning to get him to accept that if he cannot get any significant changes he will campaign for No/Out vote)
The other smart, if inevitable, move in the speech was to deploy the argument that because the eurozone needs radical new measures to make it work as part of a wider struggle to regain European competitiveness, looking at tough radical changes is in the EU’s own interests, not just the UK’s. This happens to be true, and so helps see off (at least rhetorically) the trivial argument that anything the UK wants necessarily must be objectionable selfish British cherry-picking.
David Cameron now invites other EU capitals to work on a package either for the EU as a whole or for just the UK (that’s up to them) that allows him to tell British voters that a new, better balance really is on offer.
The ensuing negotiation is therefore about just this: what do EU capitals have to agree to change that makes a significant difference, or to be precise a difference that can credibly be presented by David Cameron to UK voters as making a significant difference (not quite the same thing)?
I give some clues...
I've done one for the Commentator that looks in rather more detail at the style of the speech and the way it was structured. Link to follow, if they publish it haha
